Japan at last honours its 'Schindler'

It has taken more than 55 years: at a ceremony tomorrow, Japan will finally honour a diplomat who disobeyed orders so as to save thousands of Jews from Nazi death camps and Soviet gulags.

The unveiling of a plaque to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chiune Sugihara - widely known as "the Japanese Schindler" - will be a low-key affair, but one filled with historical significance.

For Sugihara's family, it is the first official vindication of the dead diplomat's reputation, half a century after he was forced to resign for putting his conscience before his country. For the government, it is a reminder that Japan did little to stop the genocide carried out by its wartime allies.

In 1940, Sugihara, then a vice-consul at Japan's diplomatic mission in Kuanas, Lithuania, ignored instructions from Tokyo by issuing transit permits to Japan for Jewish families fleeing from Poland in the wake of the Nazi invasion.

During a frantic 29-day period, he and his wife Yukiko handwrote 2,139 of the "visas for life" at no charge. According to some of those they helped, the couple continued writing visas and throwing them from their train even as they were evacuating the city before a Soviet offensive.

"They were human beings and they needed help," Sugihara, a Christian, said later.

His initiative helped to save about 10,000 people, but when he finally returned to Tokyo in 1947 his resignation was demanded. "They told him to quit and they cut his pension," said Yukiko Sugihara, who blames Japan's foreign office for her husband's death in 1986. "In my view, they killed him because from then on he was forced to work himself to death trying to make a living."

The Japanese government denies treating Sugihara unfairly. "He wasn't punished for breaking the rules. There was no dishonourable discharge," said spokesman for the foreign ministry, Ryu Yamazaki.

However, Chiune Sugihara's role would probably not have come to light had it been left to the Japanese government.

Israel turned up the heat by naming him as "one of the righteous among nations", an accolade also given to Oskar Schindler - the German businessman who saved nearly 1,200 Jews from the death camps during the second world war - and others who gave particular help to Jews to escape from the Holocaust.

Pressure for the Japanese government to change its stance has mounted in recent years. In the US, there have been exhibitions portraying Sugiyama's role. Earlier this year, a memorial hall was built in his honour his birthplace of Yaotsu in central Japan. The domestic media have given his story extensive coverage.

Still, the authorities have been slow to move. In 1992, parliament endorsed a vague expression of appreciation for Sugiyama's role. But the diplomat's family and Jewish groups say the in Tokyo ceremony tomorrow is the first genuine attempt to set the past to rights.

"We are grateful that the government finally appreciates what he did," said Yukiko Sugihara. "But why didn't they do it while he was alive?"